Band Amplification: The Word From On High
Right: Goulet approves.
When I mentioned that the Big Ten had given the go-ahead for bands to be amplified, I mentioned off-hand that I didn't expect it would amount to much. During last year's period of complaining alternately about the band's addiction to opera and the horrible piped-in music that inagurated the "special k make michigan stadium wicked sweet dawg" tag a couple of different emailers identified themselves as sound professionals and said that amplifying a marching band in a stadium was a difficult project not likely to be undertaken.
Michigan is undertaking it, however. Michael Haithcock, the director of bands, emailed me to give the current status of the band "in an effort to avoid the uninformed opinions that so often characterize comments regarding the MMB." This is that status:
- Big Ten AD's voted to approve the change in conference rules several months ago.
- Prior to the vote and since the decision became final, MMB faculty and athletic personnel have been working with highly qualified sound engineers to design a system workable for the MMB and Big House.
- The goal is to enhance the natural sound of the MMB and disperse it evenly throughout the stadium not to make it sound electronic or "canned".
- Time will be devoted to working toward this sound goal for the MMB during upcoming stadium rehearsals the week prior to the UConn game.
- Assuming the technology meets the goal of enhancement, the sound system will be in place for the first game although some "tweaking" may prove to be necessary going forward. Please be patient as we work to get it right in a situation that can only be created on game days.
- Acoustical studies of the new facility scientifically show that the overall sound is louder but individual components of the sound are less distinct due to the "roar" of clashing sound vibrations. Therefore, it is harder to hear the band without this enhancement.
- Moving the band into the north end zone is under discussion for future years but is not as easy a transition as first thought. We need to see how this new system works and how the rule change plays out before acting on the cost associated with making such a move.
- The SEC allowed a similar type of amplification for two years but voted to rescind the rule due to numerous problems. Coaches led the move to rescind the rule. This is unchartered territory in most conferences.
- The purported divide of "quality" of sound versus "quantity" of sound is really an non-issue for acoustical reasons to numerous to elaborate. Good blog fodder, but nothing real to be gained in the dialogue.
Sincerely,
Michael Haithcock
Director of Bands
University of Michigan
Anything that makes the band audible everywhere in the stadium is welcome, especially if it means Special K and his iPod filled with 40,000 copies of "Here Comes the Boom" are put in a cannon and shot to East Lansing where they belong. Hopefully it works out.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:54 PM ^
Bullwinkle became a favorite because the student section kept chanting for it when it wasn't played at the start of the '83 season. The fanfare band brought it back and it was a regular for years.
Varsity is sort of tough to love, though. And the lyrics are, dare I say it, trite?
August 25th, 2010 at 11:06 PM ^
The student end zone chanted "bull-wink-le" in place of "Let's Go Blue" whenever the band played "Let's Go Blue." The same tactic would probably work again if enough people wanted the song back.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:59 PM ^
So now someone's going to be smart enough to kill the Bob Seger Experiment, right??
NO MORE RAWK MUSIK!!
August 25th, 2010 at 1:02 PM ^
A very good friend of mine is a MMB alum from the mid-80s, and he'll tell you the "quality" vs "quantity" issue is very real now as it was back in his day. Paraphrasing him, "it's a freaking football game outside on a lively Saturday afternoon, not Hill Auditorium on a drowsy Sunday night, and the approach to playing the instrument has to reflect that."
He was in attendance during the Del State game, and did a double-face palm when the MMB launched into its opera presentation.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:09 PM ^
quality/quantity is a non-issue in this situation, acoustically speaking. HOWEVER, your point about playing opera has nothing to do with the acoustics, it has to do with program selection (which I'm not denying is a source of controversy). Not being able to hear the band and not liking the songs they're playing are two different things. Prof. Haithcock seems to be intentionally adressing only one of these.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:50 PM ^
All this about the band got me watching an old video of the band from the 80's. There were some great shows, but some real dogs as well. Once in '84 Wisconsin came doing their Budweiser stuff when that was new, and M responded with a salute to movies no one ever saw, or something like that. It was a dreadful embarrassment to get booed by M fans at home in front of the Wisconsin band.
Point being, different people like different shows, not all shows are great. But some shows ought to be great at M. That's expected.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:05 PM ^
it's not an improvement.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:13 PM ^
I can't wait to hear it. Hopefully this will also reduce piped in music.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:15 PM ^
really new music being written expressly for marching bands? I realize that there's no popular desire for a return to halftime programs consisting of Sousa marches and the like, but at least those pieces were written for the bands that play them, or require very little adaptation. Marching bands are 19th-century musical organizations that are being asked to play music expressly composed, written, and originally played by 20th-and 21st-century musical groups that are vastly different in size and instrumental makeup. I don't think that even Dr. Revelli himself would have been able to get the MMB to perform "rock music" well enough to really be listenable. It's only a little less silly than asking Steven Tyler to sing Puccini.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:21 PM ^
You may or may not be aware/find it interesting that almost all of the music that is played by the MMB is adapted and arranged by the marching band director (Scott Boerma) and/or other marching band directors across the country - in a sense, it is being written "new", but just not original. Marches in the more traditional sense are still written for the classical music arena, but this is simply not the kind of music that is played by most modern marching bands. A large portion of the shows the MMB played in my day (and currently, as far as I know) come from suggestions from MMB members in the spring, which are then turned into themes and written by the director over the summer. Just a little FYI.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:51 PM ^
Boerma has his strengths and weaknesses as an arranger. Personally, I found his arrangements of rock/soul/R&B stuff to be pretty much terrible (in comparison to Prof. Nix, who was phenomenal at that genre) in comparison to his jazz/classical/avant garde stuff. Don't forget, his background is DCI, and what does your average DCI group play? Not Motown or the Kings of Leon. And that factors into the musical selection as Boerma takes on the majority of the arranging.
Boerma is a great arranger, but not necessarily in a way that translates well to the Michigan Stadium audience.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:59 PM ^
You ever played a Nix arrangement? Power chord after power chord? Try again.
You can do exactly what you're saying and still have it be heard. You can emphasize the music all you want, but if no one can hear it, it's useless.
August 25th, 2010 at 2:10 PM ^
I'm curious, Bando C.--how many years have you been observing/participating in the band? It seems that your "lost touch" and "move towards . . . Drum Corps Style" observations have been popping up for 20 years, and are not unique to Boerma's directorship.
I would argue that there was a greater uproar--at least within the alumni base--during the transition from the Eric Becher era in the 80s to Gary Lewis and the changes he began in 1990. Lewis, as I recall, was the first to make extensive use of "glide step" in halftime performances--I'm sure someone out there who was in the MMB during that transition can correct me if I'm wrong.
In fact, one of the greatest changes in the band's style in the last 30+ years occurred in 1996 when, in Kevin Sedatole's first year at the helm, the pregame show was rewritten, high step was almost completely replaced with "traditional step" (ostensibly to honor Revelli's legacy, in practice to improve sound while marching), and the tempo of "The Victors" at pregame was increased significantly. That transition went a lot more smoothly among fans and alumni; perhaps it was marketed better, or perhaps because everyone was seven years removed from the last Michigan Man at the helm, tempers had cooled and suspicions had eased.
During the last 20 years, the band has suffered from the "not a Michigan man" syndrome to varying degrees--first when Eric Becher (a former MMB trumpet section leader) left after the 1988-89 season, and again when Bob Reynolds (a former alto horn line leader) retired at the end of 2000-01. I think the consistent influx of people from Texas has also made some nervous. Also, seven directors since 1989 has not helped keep things consistent.
I'm guessing that if you are a current or former MMB member, you're aware of most of this history, but I'm curious: to what degree and in what ways do you think the MMB has suffered in the past few years specifically? People can point to every director's tenure and pick out good and band things, and plenty of CD as well as video evidence exists for folks to argue their points.
Full disclosure: I'm not baiting you, I'm only asking because I have lived out of state for 12 years, and have only been back for a handful of games during the last decade. What I hear is from old friends and folks on the board, so I'm curious as to specific criticisms from those who have been there during director transitions and from season to season. You seem to have some clear opinions, and it seems that you might have bridged the Nix/Boerma transition. Thanks!
August 25th, 2010 at 2:27 PM ^
Lifetime follower, 4 year member, passionate about my MMB. Lots of really great points here, and I'm not necessarily disagreeing with a lot of it. Yes, I bridged the Nix/Boerma transition.
I don't want to go into an axe-grinding rant, but I will say it this way: I'd wear a band shirt or my MMB jacket or something to class a lot over the years I was in the band. When half your t-shirt drawer is MMB shirts, you can't help it. Anyways, Boerma's first year, I couldn't wear an MMB shirt to class without someone saying "hey, you're in the band? Why can't we hear you guys anymore?" The location of the band hadn't changed from the year before. The instrumentation hadn't changed. But what did?
The key here is volume. As George Cavender used to say, "MORE DAMN SOUND!" (insert arm motion and cantankerous look here) There's a way you arrange and conduct your band if you want sound. There's another way if you want musicality and orchestral sound. Then there's the middle ground of getting both. THAT is the Michigan Band sound. It's been a little while since I heard the MMB and heard that distinct quality and sound I associated with the Michigan Marching Band for my entire life. We've lost that middle ground that put us on the map. Yes, musically it might sound "better" (after all, Nix made the Victors sound like a race to the end of the page), but at a football game... People have to hear you.
This debate didn't start until September of 2007. Which also marked the first time I ever heard "piano" in reference to playing the Victors at pregame. Go figure.
August 25th, 2010 at 2:56 PM ^
I think a larger issue at hand, after you seem to have left, is the fact that the reserves system has been depleted vastly. Boerma (in a similar way to one Mr. Rodriguez) definitely "got it" while I was still in the band as far as sound and culture go. He clearly realized the folly of focusing too much on dynamic contrasts and focused on greater volumes last season (my last in the band). However, in terms of sheer numbers the band is much much smaller (by upwards of 120 members or so) than it was in the past. 3 to 4 years ago, total membership was between 350 to 400 where last year it was probably around 275 or so give or take.
Also, to beat a dead horse to death (we're from death) the band's location, which Haithcock alludes to in his e-mail, is not ideal. Hopefully they do get to move it to the endzone eventually.
Seacrest out.
August 25th, 2010 at 5:11 PM ^
I can't speak to the situation with the reserves, but I can say this: instrumentation for the band has stayed remarkably consistent over the last 2o years, no matter the size of the band. I've thought about doing a diary on this, but percentages of brass, woodwinds, and percussion when taking the whole band membership into account, have barely changed since 1991. In 1991, membership was around 325, and went up as high as 420 in 1999. Things seems to have been tailing off since then, but I'm not in a place to speculate why. The size of the band definitely impacts perceived volume of sound, but no matter what size the band is, it should be putting out the same kind of tone, due to the consistency of instrumentation.
Therefore, I generally disregard arguments I see (not today, but I have in the past) that suggest the instrumentation is the culprit for the quieter band. The band's instrumentation is not likely to change; it is as much a part of the MMB sound as the modified British brass band instrumentation is to Ohio State's sound.
August 25th, 2010 at 7:26 PM ^
I had no idea the reserve system was changed so drastically. Do you know the reason? I was a member during the Becher years, and, while maybe ten percent of the reserves didn't really contribute much, most of them were very good and contributed significantly to the total sound.
August 25th, 2010 at 8:04 PM ^
I think the reserves have always contributed to the sound in the stands. I was just pointing out that the total size of the band has fluctuated quite a bit over the last 20 years. The size and instrumentation of the band has not changed at all in 30+ years for pregame (other than the evolution of percussion, alto horns to F Horns (mellophones) and the addition of a small number of bass trombones). Halftime band size has grown somewhat, but not drastically. There are more people who march at halftime (maybe 275) than march at pregame (225ish).
The sound debate, as near as I can tell, seems to be split between those who were fans of the Jamie Nix years (01-06) and Scott Boerma (07-present). To present an analogy that has at least some truth to it, many seem to see Nix the way folks in the late 80s saw Becher (rah-rah, intense, fun music and shows), and those fans of Nix seem to see Boerma the way fans of Becher saw Lewis (more focused on musical excellence at the expense of entertainment value, diverse types of show).
I think each director brings their own style and approach, just like any coach would, and their are plenty of fans and detractors of each style. I still believe that the MMB strives for excellence, and that its members are fiercely dedicated to the band and the team. That is the most important thing, as far as I'm concerned.
August 25th, 2010 at 3:20 PM ^
I've noticed people say quite often how much louder the band used to be...even on video footage despite the fact the instrumentation is the same.
Anyway, I have another "historian" type YouTube accout in the early stages for the MMB. Most of these videos are from the Eric Becher years which are my personal favorite...
http://www.youtube.com/user/MMBgoblue
This account has several videos from Gary Lewis' direction from the 1991 season...
http://www.youtube.com/user/dpanian#p/u
My own personal opinion, I was never a fan of the way Kevin Sedatole changed the pregame in 1996 which is the current format. I kind of wish the band would go back to the format they had before that. I don't hate the current one. I just prefer the old one which was used for so many years.
August 25th, 2010 at 3:29 PM ^
One thing I wish would happen is for the Michigan High Step to come back! That was one thing the band was known for, that crazy 90degree step. There still is a little of it left in pregame, but beyond that one section of the Victors, it is gone.
Also, the high step way of marching demanded that you face the direction you were marching. I think this would give the whole stadium some sound during halftime as opposed to the band always facing the press-box...another drum-corp influence.
August 25th, 2010 at 2:57 PM ^
They are kind of power chordy. Maybe not all of them. But, yeah.
August 25th, 2010 at 3:03 PM ^
"They said, 'You can swear on XM Radio.' No shit, because no one will hear it. You can swear in the woods, too."
-Hedberg
August 25th, 2010 at 1:57 PM ^
I think his strength IS his skill at arranging, however I think his weakness is in song selection/programming. Nix was a little stronger at the latter, yet nearly as skilled at the former.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:27 PM ^
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_This_Way
Just because a song was written for one style/genre/instrumentation doesn't mean you can't effectively re-write/transcribe it into a new one. It takes some musical skill, and sometimes a song isn't a good fit for translation, but we wouldn't have a lot of music we have today if we musicians only played what was written for their instrument/genre.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:36 PM ^
I think the bigger issue is, if the MMB keeps up with the times --- how will we know the difference between their version of "TiK ToK" and "California Gurls"???????
August 25th, 2010 at 1:17 PM ^
Once the MMB is miced, they can start using AutoTune to give it a fresh, kewl sound!!! Digital effects! It's like the sonic equivalent of Sparty laser beams. Nothing is better than making everything sound like robots.
/sarcasm ... but I think it is worth noting that, as awesome as this is, it does open up the potential for truly abhorrent atrocities against the gameday experience
August 25th, 2010 at 1:23 PM ^
If so, +1 Brian.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:28 PM ^
Robert Goulet always gets a +1
August 25th, 2010 at 1:53 PM ^
Naaaaaaaaature..... GOULET!
August 25th, 2010 at 1:34 PM ^
70,000 tin cans with strings attached to one a doesn't work
August 25th, 2010 at 1:49 PM ^
HAITH!
August 25th, 2010 at 1:55 PM ^
Michigan is in unchartered territory in terms of the loudness of crowd noise? I thought I'd never see the day.
Welcome to Big Ten football UConn!
August 25th, 2010 at 2:03 PM ^
more cowbell
August 25th, 2010 at 2:45 PM ^
Haithcock is the man.
August 25th, 2010 at 3:07 PM ^
would love to see Ozzie in his interpretation of the drum major's outfit.......
August 25th, 2010 at 3:14 PM ^
FYI: Let us not forget, that "back in the day" the stadium had tartan turf, which reflected sound like a brick wall. The new field turf (and natural grass turf before that) eats sound like eggcrate foam....of course the field was replaced back in the late '90s, first with natural grass, then the fake turf.
August 25th, 2010 at 5:01 PM ^
Not only did the artificial, rock-hard Astroturf help reflect sound, the fact that the field level was dropped 3 1/2 feet when they put in grass in 1991 really impacted the sound as well.
August 25th, 2010 at 3:53 PM ^
This is excellent news. I realize that wiring a marching band for sound is a very difficult task but am happy to see that we're up to the challenge. Hopefully, we'll get great in-game sound and can do away with the nightmare that is JockJamz. A simple drum beat can hype a crowd even better than that sage of musical history - Eminem. Maybe we aren't free from the terrible grip of JockJamz, but I'm happy to see a move back toward a Michigan Stadium experience.
I can't wait to hear, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome...the Michigan Marching Band!" while never again hearing, "Sweet Caroline...oh, oh, oh".
Go Blue!
August 25th, 2010 at 4:04 PM ^
Solution: get these for every member of the band:
August 25th, 2010 at 7:03 PM ^
Fandamntastic!
August 25th, 2010 at 9:42 PM ^
to know three things:
1). Amping the band was taken as a challenge and it looks like one that Michigan wants to win.
2). That the MMB has significant pride in what it does (as well it should) and wants to make sure that people know what they are thinking. The only way you control your message is to actually wtite the message yourself.
3). That Michigan fans genuinely care about the band enough to spend a massive amount of time debating it here.
Go Blue!
P.S.: Would anyone else go for a MGoShirt that was just a sillohuete of a Michigan Marching Band member that simply read "MORE DAMN SOUND!" next to it?
August 26th, 2010 at 10:14 AM ^
Must have GRC hand motion as well...then I would buy it.
August 26th, 2010 at 10:59 AM ^
OK, look I know some of the stuff from the 80 was ridiculously cheese riddled, but I think Becher did the best job when it came to balancing music selection. For more on that see the song "into the stone". Musicality-wise, Gary Lewis was THE MAN! That SOB Kevin Sedatole was the ruination of the MMB and I wrote and told him as much. The complaint was that The Victors had been made too slow during pregame by Cavender, and that it kind of dragged which is the opposite of what you want to get the croud going. Sedatole's solution was to lose the Lock Step,(high step) and up the tempo. The real solution to the problem was to take the Lock Step to half speed, double the speed of The Victors, and do what the band calls the imperial death march during pregame. For more on that, see the 8 bars or so that is done now during the "dog fight" section of the Victors during pregame.
Number fluctuations: It used to be that the lock step and entries scared away fat band members. That is why the numbers skyrocketed when pregame changed. Not coincedentally, it is also why entries look so much crappier these days. None of the big fat fattys can get their legs up that high, for that long.
There were better solutions, but they were not implemented.
August 26th, 2010 at 12:31 PM ^
I think the numbers going up in the late 90s also might have had to do with the 1997 football season. In general, I think numbers were increasing slightly during the Lewis years. From 1991 to the beginning of 1996, numbers went from 325 to 375.
If you're suggesting that the band do the whole of pregame Victors at slow stride, that would present some problems. First, the half-speed lock step works at the break-up strain, but during the rest of the work it would look strange--the music is moving at such a contradictory pace to what the band would be marching. Second, remember the "100 Yards"--when the rank leaders would show off at the end of band week with 100 yards of slow stride? I think the band would have struggled doing that much slow stride 20 years ago, and they certainly aren't going back now. Finally, since the band would be taking half as many steps during pregame, they'd never make it down to the north end zone in sweep lines. Believe me, cutting the lock from pregame was a tough decision, and I don't think pregame is perfect now, but I just don't know what the best solution is.
I have heard some great Becher stories. Sounds like he was almost like a football coach out there, really got the band motivated. Gary Lewis was amazing musically--he had amazing ears and also wrote great arrangements and great drill. That's why he runs the orchestra at Colorado-Boulder now:
August 26th, 2010 at 4:17 PM ^
Yep. the two biggest bands the MMB had were in 1998 and 2004. Why? The National Championship, and the first Rose Bowl since said National Championship. There was a 100% correlation there. In '04 they actually had a problem because they had more bodies in Revelli than they had chairs!
In '05 they started seriously cutting after music auditions at orientation, there was just no way it could be that big again.
August 26th, 2010 at 1:58 PM ^
Revelli youre substantively right. FL, huh? I could drone on and on and on on this topic, but really, lets just let the video record speak:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ySr3tEG-M Note particularly from 2:14 on.
Becher was the ruination of the MMB. In not getting tenure (he was made director at 25, and coasted on his laurels from there), he allowed the revolving door that has been the MMB directors' position these last 20 years.
When you have directors that prefer slinking to marching, they will minimize, rationalize away the value of, and even denigrate the highstep that Revelli (the esteemed director and not his namesake here) invented. They will practice the Michigan tradition only to the extent that they have to to get thru pregame, and they will focus their time on esoteric slinking halftimes that bore fans, but wow the four music majors who are watching. And they will do neither pregame nor halftime well. After a few years of being unable to fully implement their "vision" in such a constrained environment, they will move on to a school that will. Hence the MMB has had SEVEN directors since Becher left in 1990.
The marching band's devolution is a systemic problem. The solution rests in the employment of a MMB director who embraces and rejoices in preforming shows in the style of Michigan Tradition, and leaves the slinking to "other" institutions.
August 26th, 2010 at 4:00 PM ^
MBandMarch: I think we agree in many ways, actually. As you probably noticed from my earlier comments on this thread, I'm not here to bag on past directors, I'm just interested in hearing what people think. I said that I'd heard stories about Becher's coach-like approach; I didn't comment on his musicianship. I commented positively on Lewis's drill and musicianship. I didn't comment on Sedatole at all, so take that for what you will.
I disagree with your reasoning as to why directors leave. As I understood it, and which you seem to confirm, Becher was asked to leave because he wasn't cutting it in terms of his musicianship in the School of Music. Let's look at the seven directors that have followed, and where they are now:
August 26th, 2010 at 4:33 PM ^
Well, there was a reason for all of the fluctuations in the 90's after Becher left The MMB director position paid, quite literally, pennies until the end of Gary Lewis' tenure. It wasn't fair. They figured out the pay wasn't competitive, and they were basically forcing the director to be indigent. It was awful. And got fixed. The MMB directorship is not a tenured position, but rather one that is relisted and rehired every 3 years. Nix had to go through the rehiring process when I was in the MMB, it was a quick cut-and-dry process that was merely a formality. Yet it has been endowed and supplemented so that it is actually a competitive and decent salary, unlike what it was.
The other thing that changed was the fact that the band world changed during that period of time. Whether we like it or not, the directorship fo the MMB is not a lifetime/career ending position anymore. No one in the band world wants to be a marching band director until they're in their 70's, like Revelli. They want to be Director of Bands somewhere. Cavender was the last to be both DoB and MMB Director, and it was purposely separated into two jobs when H. Bob took over in the 70's. Our Music School just can't sustain someone doing both jobs. By Gary Lewis, it got to the point where that standard and career goal for a band director caught up with Michigan.
So we ask ourselves, where did all the former MMB directors go after Michigan? Gary Lewis went to be DoB at Ohio State. Tapia went to be DoB somewhere in Texas, I think? Sedatole is now DoB at Michigan State. Nix will probably be DoB somewhere in the future. For him, his last two years as MMB director, he was a newlywed whose wife (an MMB alum) lived in Florida in a graduate program. It was an impossible situation for him at the end, and you couldn't fault him for leaving. He made a commitment to stay until the freshmen his first year were graduated, knowing the instabiity there had been. He ended up staying 2 years past that commitment. The fact remains that the MMB places its directors into very, very good jobs after they're done here. Now, for Boerma, that might be quite different, as he doesn't have a PhD. Even though he was DoB at Eastern before he came to Michigan.
So, yeah, I think you're right on a lot of counts, but it's a little more complicated, and the world Eric Becher directed the MMB in is a lot different than what the landscape is like today. And I blame DCI for a lot of that, too.
August 26th, 2010 at 1:58 PM ^
Awesome to know that they will be even louder this year. I'm going to two games this year and I can't wait to hear how good they sound.
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